


A Deal with Hades

by HKThauer



Series: Immortals [1]
Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awesome Sarah Rogers, Deal with a Devil, F/M, Hades isn't Evil, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 05:45:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13606812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HKThauer/pseuds/HKThauer
Summary: Sarah Rogers refuses to let her son die, so after every doctor tells her to get a priest, she asks for some help from another source.





	A Deal with Hades

**Author's Note:**

> My family was watching an episode of The Twilight Zone and a dude made a deal with the devil for immortality. Of course he squandered it. But it made me wonder what could have happened had he chosen to use it for good. This is the beginning of what I came up with. 
> 
> Special thanks to Zephrbabe and Aenaria for beta-ing, and also to ibelieveinturtles, Nix, Pink, and my lovely internet wife, CatrinaSL for encouraging me and shouting ideas at me.

Sarah Rogers ushered yet another grim faced doctor out of her bare one room apartment. He agreed with all the other doctors she had been able to scrape up the money to bring in. Her son was dying at only eighteen, and there was nothing to be done but fetch a priest for last rites. Well, Sarah had never exactly been conventional, but she had always been stubborn. So she stubbornly invited someone unconventional into her home to make a deal. Using methods she was certain would get her locked up in an institution, Sarah invited Hades to come to her table. When she completed her ritual, there was a knock at the door. As she opened it, she took stock of her visitor. He wore a well-tailored suit, at first glance it seemed a shadow-grey wool, but the more she looked at it, the less certain she was of the material, as it seemed to move like wisps of woven smoke.

“So it worked, then,” she said, resigned to what fate had forced her to do.

“Yes, Sarah. I’m here. Perhaps you would prefer to take this conversation inside? I highly doubt you would like anyone to know what it is you’ve done.” 

“Of course.”Deciding she must attempt to keep Hades’ attention away from the clammy, grey face of her sick child, Sarah spoke again. “Would you like tea?” Despite how emotionally prepared she had thought she was to face him, Sarah’s hands shook nervously as she picked at the fraying pocket of her dress. She wasn’t sure if he would help, or even if he could, but Hades was the only god that seemed to be listening. The deity in her tiny apartment held a power that she knew she would never fully understand, it was at total odds with the room, which was now only furnished with a bed and a chair. She was glad that she hadn’t yet managed to sell off the kettle though, and that a neighbor had brought tea earlier that day. It wouldn’t do any good to offend someone with the amount of power emanating from Hades form, in fact it might bring even more harm. Before her mind could further spiral into questioning the wisdom of inviting the ruler of the underworld into the room with her ailing son, Hades began to speak.

“You know,” the man began while declining tea with a gentle shake of the head, “You are the only person to call on me and offer me tea. Yet you do so in each of your lives.” He motioned her to the one rickety chair in the room, and she was too surprised at both his words and his gesture and the to refuse the seat.

“I’ve called on you before?” she asked, picking at the peeling yellowed paint on the chair’s arm.

“You have. But never to make a deal. Only ever to see if I would come.” Sarah’s fingers stilled. She knew better than to contradict a god, but it seemed unlikely that he would come visit her in any life, for any reason.

“Do you know what I want?”

“You want your son to live the years he should rightfully have. As any good mother would want.”

“Is that something you can give him? Or do we end this visit after tea?” The Olympian smiled as she regained her boldness in the face of her son’s need, and despite what she might have expected, it was a smile full of warmth, a twinkle appeared in his eye as he answered.

“I can stop his death, and prevent his body from falling ill, but it will not be a gift. I expect to get what I want most in return for what you want most.” Sarah’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at her guest,

“And what is that?” she inquired.

“If I do this, your spirit must return with me to the underworld, and it will be your permanent home. Your body will have died.”

Sarah Rogers looked at the suddenly stone-faced deity before her, and questioned, “Don’t you have a wife?”

Hades looked at Sarah so deeply, she felt as though he were looking through her. “My Persephone was taken from me long ago. And you would not be forced into anything in the underworld. Your role there will be up to you, and you alone.”

Sarah bit into her lower lip while she thought. “And Steven lives? He doesn’t get sick anymore?”

“Absolutely. You may not see him again, so I shall even permit you to write him a note. Though you must do so before we leave.” Hades conjured a writing station as he said this.

 

After writing the letter, she looked at Hades.

“I’m ready.” she told him. As a swirling rainbow enveloped them, suddenly Sarah Rogers could remember every life she had lived. Including the one when her true mother, Demeter, had tricked her into forgetting about how much she loved the god taking her away. She had been trapped on earth, doomed to live without him, until she chose to go back to him with no memories of their connection. But now her spirit was going home.

 

* * *

 

_ Dearest Steven, _

_ The doctors all agree that you will not survive, and that it is only a question of when you will die. I refuse to listen to them, and instead have found someone who can help. From now on, you must do without me, my dear son. I have made a pact with Hades. He will no longer claim you, and instead I will go to his realm in your place. He assures me that you will not die. You will not age or even fall ill. I know you will use this extra time on earth to help others. Please remember that I love you, and do not let yourself fall prey to the vices that took your father from us. Goodbye, _

_ Your Loving Mother _

 

Steve read the letter he had found among his mother’s lap where he had found her body, sitting by his bed, and then read it again. There was no possible way it was true. People didn’t go and make deals with myths. Especially not his level-headed mother. It was surely no more than the final ramblings of a sick woman. Steve felt the tears falling from his face onto his arm, folded the letter, and placed it in the pocket over his heart.


End file.
